Review for Pastel Vol. 1

Wow, this was an interesting manga. It has a good cast of characters, though they aren’t always the smartest.

Mugi, our main character, is a total pervert, though it seems while he is that, he doesn’t peek or check stuff on purpose… well at least not always. He should learn to knock on doors before opening them though. Or keeping his eyes closed when he opens doors. Otherwise it will become his death one day.
But, underneath all that pervertness is a guy with a heart in the right place. He is dedicated to find Yuu, to protect Yuu and to take care of her.
We can also see this with how it went with his ex. He could have said he wanted her to stay, but he knew in the end it would be better to just say goodbye, to just tell her good luck and to leave it at that. And I can understand, he just wants his ex to be happy, and also long distance isn’t easy. I felt sorry for him though, from what we can read he really was sad and depressed because of this.
I really loved that he was so awesome in housework. Cooking? Easy! Cleaning? Sure, no problem. He can do everything and mostly this is because of his dad. I am kind of curious what happened to Mugi’s mom. Not sure if I missed that somewhere, or that it wasn’t mentioned, but I would like to know.

Yuu is a great girl, though I was surprised at her lack of housework skills. I could imagine that she can’t cook (it seems to be a recurring theme in manga/anime), but she can’t even clean? Wow…
Still I loved her and her silliness, how hard she tried to find a place to call home after what happened to her dad. Her pain seemed really real. I can imagine people might shake their heads when they hear that she didn’t cry, but I know the feeling. Everyone is crying, but you can’t, even though you are super sad and feel like the world is collapsing around you. As we can see, her tears are there, and they flow out sometimes (especially during the night time). I hope that she will feel more happy soon. I hope that Mugi can help her with her sadness and her loss.

I loved the art, it was really pretty, though at times the faces didn’t look entirely correct.

It was really nice that this volume took place during summer. I could use some warm weather, and all the beaches, the food, the various other hints to summer made me happy and I wish I could be there. Of course I hope that the manga will move on through the seasons. Since I wouldn’t mind seeing Yuu and Mugi in the winter, or spring or autumn.

There was a LOT of fanservice. Not only underpants shots, but also nakedness, bare butts, breasts and several other instances that made the book a bit annoying. I don’t mind some fanservice (for instance a few underpants shots), but it shouldn’t dominate everything. It shouldn’t be the #1 selling point. I will keep on reading and hoping that maybe it will get less. I am really curious after all about Mugi and Yuu’s relationship, I want to know more about these 2 characters. So I will just hope that it will be less, and otherwise I will see how long I will keep going on with this series.